Chicago suburbs

[bigbootch]

You're going to have trouble finding a 2-bedroom home in Northbrook in that price range. Northbrook is generally considered to be a "nice" (read: rich) town, like Wilmette, Winnetka, Northfield, etc.

You may or may not be able to find a home in that price range in Glenview (the same metra line that runs through Northbrook runs through Glenview). If you are able to find one, then I would recommend it - the two high schools for Glenview (Glenbrook North and Glenbrook South) are both great.

Naperville / Lisle / Libertyville / Mundelein, those areas are cheaper and you should not have too much trouble finding something in your price range. However, they are terribly "out of the way," which you may or may not mind. If all you're going to be doing is taking the train to work and back, and otherwise staying within a 10-mile radius of your home for grocery shopping / eating out / whatever, then these places would be fine. But going anywhere else (like driving downtown for a nice meal) is going to be a pain.

A tier below Glenview, I would look into Morton Grove or Skokie. These have good location (more central), should fit in your budget nicely, and have good school districts (not quite as strong as the Glenbrooks, but still good).

Let me know if you have any more questions.

-bigbootch

[z28dreams]

I don't think 250-300k will buy you much of a SFH in Chicago in the 'nicer' suburbs.

My guess is that most 3bed+ home in naperville/schaumburg/similar are closer to the 500-600k mark.

Your best bet is probably to look far west or north if you want to stick w/ the SFH route.

[z28dreams]

FWIW, I'm also looking to possibly move back to Chicago within 6mos to 2 years, and would like to hear suggestions for good places for singles to live (I'm 27).

Prefer good 'bang for the buck', and train access is pretty important.

[bigbootch]

[ QUOTE ]

Yea, I'll most likely be trainin it. As far as preference, all I know is that north is pricy and south is shootings, so somewhere in the middle???

[/ QUOTE ]

That's half true. The northern suburbs by the water are very expensive ($10 million estates in Winnetka along Sheridan drive), but if you go even more north (e.g. Libertyville, almost at the Wisconsin border), then it's not expensive. Also, northwest suburbs (far away from the water) are newer towns, and are cheaper. Lots of young families, etc.

The south side (like where U of C is, where the US cellular field is, etc.) is dangerous, yes. But the southwest suburbs (Oak Park, Naperville) are very nice.

Take a look at this map:
http://www.wildonions.org/Neighborhoods-Suburbs.htm

You can see the relative location of the various towns I mentioned. I forgot to mention Niles, I would lump that together with Morton Grove and Skokie.

-bigbootch

[bigbootch]

[ QUOTE ]
FWIW, I'm also looking to possibly move back to Chicago within 6mos to 2 years, and would like to hear suggestions for good places for singles to live (I'm 27).

Prefer good 'bang for the buck', and train access is pretty important.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not sure exactly how your priorities stack up, but what about Evanston (assuming you want to rent and not buy)? You could also try for a place in the city, maybe the West Loop for lower prices...

-bigbootch

[Big TR]

Aurora, as long as you are within the Oswego School District, is a good option. You should be able to find a home under $300k that will work for you. It's about 15 minutes to the train station, another 1 hour downtown. It's only a marginally longer commute than from Naperville.

The closer you go to the city, it will become difficult to find a home that fits your budget that isn't a complete dump. Renting for a few years would not be a bad option.

[pokerbobo]

Based on your revised info... I would check out this town. No Metra station, but depending on what side of town you live on, its only about 6-8 miles to get to the Libertyville, Waukegan, or Prairie Crossing stations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurnee,_Illinois

[bigbootch]

I would put both Gurnee and Aurora in the same "very out of the way, but perfectly fine if you plan on staying close to home" category as Naperville, Libertyville, etc. As I said, this may or may not be an issue for you personally.

Basically, for the same $300k, you're going to get a much better (bigger, nicer) home in Gurnee than you are going to get in Skokie. Some people prefer this, and don't mind being a 75-minute drive away from downtown. Others prefer the smaller home in Skokie, b/c they would rather have a 25-minute drive downtown.

The one thing I would say though is that the school districts in Gurnee or Aurora is not going to be competitive with GBN/GBS or Niles West / Niles North. I don't know any stats offhand but I'm like 99% sure that they lag significantly behind on any numerical metric you look at (avg SAT score, # of AP classes offered, % of class going on to 4 -year colleges, etc.) I might be wrong - if so, I would love to be corrected.

-bigbootch

[z28dreams]

For those suggesting Gurnee and Oswego, I hardly consider these suburbs of Chicago because they are so far from the city.

How about Bolingbrook or Plainfield? Those are far, but much closer than Gurnee/Oswego.

[fifield]

[ QUOTE ]
I'll be lookin to move to one soon. Don't know much about them, but can't yet afford the rich northern ones. Here's the criteria:
1. awesome school district
2. access to train to commute
3. reasonably priced housing (for a Chi suburb)


[/ QUOTE ]

I live in Elmwood Park right now, but that wouldn't really fit your no. 1 criterion, so I won't even get into how much I love it.

Brookfield. One of the top high schools in the state (RBHS), close to the city, four Metra stops within just a couple miles of each other, more affordable than Riverside with similar amenities but less superiority complex (I'd claim they're pretentious in Riverside, but they really do have the better community, it's just you pay the price for it). I'd want to raise a family here. There's also the Brookfield Zoo. And besides meeting your criteria, it's just the kind of place that feels like home. Hope you find a good spot! Good luck,

fifield